Today, ICEYE announced the completion of a Series F financing round, raising approximately €450 million in a primary round led by General Atlantic. Together with a secondary placement, the total transaction exceeds €1 billion and values ICEYE at a post-money primary valuation of over €10 billion, placing it firmly among Europe's most consequential technology companies. As a long-standing investor since 2018, we at Molten Ventures could not be more proud, and we wanted to take a moment to share the journey that has brought us here.
A Bet on a Bold Idea
We first invested in ICEYE back in May 2018, when the Finland-based startup had just made history as the first company in the world to successfully launch a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellite with a launch mass of under 100kg, a feat many in the industry had flatly said couldn't be done.
What drew us in wasn't just the technical achievement, though. It was the ambition behind it. ICEYE's founders, Rafal Modrzewski and Pekka Laurila, had identified a fundamental gap in how the world is monitered. Traditional satellites were expensive, slow to reposition, and blind in cloud cover and darkness. Their answer was a constellation of nimble, affordable microsatellites equipped with SAR technology, capable of imaging any point on Earth, day or night, rain or shine, at a fraction of the cost of anything that had come before. The goal was straightforward: make reliable Earth observation data accessible beyond the handful of government agencies that could historically afford it.
Solving a hard, real-world problem with a genuinely differentiated approach and the potential for outsized returns is exactly what we look for at Molten Ventures, and ICEYE’s story is a great example of this.
A Partnership Built Over Rounds
At each step, the company has delivered on its objectives and hit their milestones, growing the constellation, maturing the technology, and building real commercial traction across a widening set of industries and geographies.
By the time of its Series D, ICEYE had already launched 16 satellite missions and was operating the world's largest SAR satellite constellation, a position it has only strengthened since. Along the way it supported the Ukrainian government’s military efforts with access to its constellation in 2022; and signed deals with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the Australian government to support real-time detection of floods and bushfires. In the years since, ICEYE has steadily expanded its reach across defence, insurance, government emergency response, banking, and utilities. Today, ICEYE has over 1,000 employees operating across more than nine countries, a long way from the startup we backed eight years ago.
The Sovereignty Dimension
Something has shifted in how governments think about space. For a long time, Earth observation was viewed as a useful but ultimately optional tool. That is no longer the case. As geopolitical tensions have intensified and the strategic importance of persistent, real-time intelligence has become ever more in demand, SAR data has quietly crossed a threshold where it is now considered critical national infrastructure.
At Molten, we have long held the view that European sovereignty in space, defence, and critical technology represents one of the clearest structural tailwinds in the market. The European Space Agency approved a record €22 billion budget for 2026 to 2028, a more than 30% increase explicitly aimed at strengthening Europe's strategic autonomy.
The capital backdrop across defence and deep technology is unprecedented, and governments across Europe, and beyond, are actively rebuilding their defence and resilience capacity, and they are turning to trusted, technically proven partners to do it. ICEYE has earned that trust in a way few companies have. Its constellation is increasingly contracted by global governments for sovereign intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. In 2025 alone it secured major programmes with the Polish Armed Forces, the Finnish Defence Forces, and the Portuguese Air Force, alongside a multi-billion-euro contract with Germany through its Rheinmetall joint venture. These are not peripheral wins. They are foundational contracts that reflect ICEYE's emergence as a genuine pillar of European strategic capability.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
The numbers tell part of the story. In 2025, ICEYE reported €250 million in revenue, over €100 million in EBITDA, and over €1.5 billion contract backlog, and was included in the FT1000: Europe's Fastest Growing Companies list for the second consecutive year. But the more telling indicator is the breadth of the customer base itself, spanning defence ministries, humanitarian agencies, insurers, and governments responding to natural disasters. This is a platform that has proven itself across sectors and use cases, at scale, in real-world conditions.
Looking Ahead
"When we first backed ICEYE in 2018, we saw a team with the ambition and capability to redefine European deep tech. Today's announcement, at an over €10 billion valuation, is a powerful validation of that conviction and places ICEYE firmly among Europe's most consequential technology companies. In an era where sovereign, space-based intelligence has shifted from a strategic asset to a national imperative, ICEYE is uniquely positioned at the heart of that demand.
This is also a milestone for Molten. ICEYE becomes our second decacorn to date, which is a great reflection of our long-held belief in backing European technology champions at their earliest stages. Over the past year there has been a distinct shift with the recognition of the need for technological sovereignty; Molten’s portfolio of European high-tech companies is well placed to provide the resilience that is required across technology platforms. We are proud to remain long-standing shareholders as ICEYE enters its next phase of growth." CEO, Ben Wilkinson
At the value of the Series F, Molten’s holding value in ICEYE will increase to £317 million, representing an uplift of £238 million (+236%) from the 31 March 2026 holding value, increase Molten's Gross Portfolio Value (GPV) by approximately 16%.
What started with a single sub-100kg satellite in 2018 has grown into the world's largest and most advanced SAR constellation, with over 1,000 employees, billions in contracted revenue, and a footprint spanning defence, government, and commercial markets across the globe. Today's Series F, led by General Atlantic and valuing the business at over €10 billion, is a milestone that speaks for itself. We are incredibly proud to be part of that journey.